Bradyll (locomotive)

Did You Know?

• Bradyll was built to work on the South Hetton Railway, which ran from Haswell to Seaham Harbour.
• It was named after Colonel Thomas Bradyll, who owned the mines and promoted the railway and new port at Seaham.
• Recent research by Dr. Michael Bailey has raised doubt over the engine's true identity, suggesting it may be Nelson, a locomotive built c. 1840 by Thomas Richardson of Hartlepool for the South Hetton Colliery.

Survival

By the 1870s Bradyll was obsolete, and in 1875 it was converted into a snowplough by removing the cylinders and motion and adding a blade and weights. It was withdrawn from this duty by World War Two but avoided scrapping because it sat on an isolated piece of track. After the war it became a gate guardian at the Philadelphia Iron Works, where regular painting with tar-based paint helped preserve it. During the early 1970s it was kept in the Council yard at Burke Street, Shildon before moving into the display sheds when the Timothy Hackworth Museum opened, at which time it was painted black. Bradyll has never been restored and is probably unique in this respect. It has an Adamson type firebox and Wilson wheels, as used by Hackworth on the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Currently on display at Locomotion, Shildon, no restoration is planned to return it to an as-built appearance.